As a prior pachinko ball counter for counting pachinko balls charged into a game machine by a player, the following is known to persons skilled in the art. A game machine, equipped with a pachinko ball counter, having an alignment rail in an introduction path for sending pachinko balls charged from a ball-inserting port of the game machine into the inside; the pachinko ball counter counting pachinko balls, aligned in a line by the alignment rail, by sensors which consist of photoelectric switches positioned in the end side of said introducing path.
If the pachinko balls, discharged after counting by the pachinko ball counter, drop directly into a recovery gutter located in the lower portion ot a game Island, loud noises are generated and the recovery gutter can be made to have holes. Therefore, in the prior art, a pachinko ball counter has been connected to a recovery gutter via a long pitch spring member (called a "reduction bellows") so as to drop quietly.
Furthermore, some prior art is equipped with a cylindrical member which reaches lower recovery gutter at a ball dispensing port of the ball counter, and a plurality of damper members for damping a falling force of the pachinko ball are mounted alternately on the inside of the cylindrical member.
Some game machines, especially a slot machine which uses a pachinko ball in place of a coin as a game medium, need a large number of pachinko balls in comparison with the number of coins used in a slot machine (generally five pachinko balls correspond to one coin). Since such a game machine must count the pachinko balls one by one with only one counting sensor mounted on a single alignment rail, trouble occurs in that the time for counting becomes long, and so game playing is hindered by the counting time.
In a slot machine using pachinko balls, since a large number of pachinko balls are discharged to the alignment rail intermittently, the alignment rail is shortened and made steep so as to dispense the pachinko balls in a short time; therefore, the so-called "bridging phenomenon" can occur, wherein during flowing the upper balls pile up on other lower pachinko balls and are caught so they, together with lower pachinko balls, stop at the end side of the alignment rail. Therefore, ball counting will have stagnated and so the trouble of interruption of playing will occur.
In the prior art that uses said spring member for flowing pachinko balls discharged from the pachinko ball counter, although it is effective when one pachinko balls are discharged in a line from the ball counter, the bridging phenomenon will occur at an inlet of the spring member when a number of the balls are discharged fast from the ball counter; therefore, pachinko balls will not be able to flow into the recovery gutter smoothly and the game will often be interrupted.
In the case that the counter is equipped with the cylindrical member, although the bridging phenomenon does not occur and lots of the pachinko balls can be counted and discharged fast, the cylindrical member must be cut appropriately by a cutter, etc., when the cylindrical member is mounted to the pachinko ball counter for leaving a proper space between the lower end of the cylindrical member and a recovery gutter located in the lower area of a game machine island. Therefore, a great deal of time and labor is required for mounting the cylindrical member, and much of the cylindrical member is wasted because the cutting off length is not constant and so many odd pieces are made.